By the Croft of ChrifF. 67 SECT. X I I. The Vjef. BEloved Hearers, I fuppofe youwill give me leave to takers for granted,that you are all the rational.creatures-ofGod, made fubjeet to him, and capable of enjoying him , and luckas mutt be happy or miferable for ever : as alto that you are all unwilling to be miferable, and willingto behappy ; and that this life is the time for the ufe of thofe means on which your everlaft- ing life dependeth ; and that Judgement will turn the leales at Taft, as Grace or Sin (hall turn them now. I hope alfo that I niay fuppofe that you are agreed that Chriftianiry is the only way to happinefs , and confequently that you are all profeffed Chrifti- ans. And one would think that where men =So far fatisfied of the End and of theWay, we might conceive great hopes of their fincerity and falvation. But when we fee that mens lives do nulli- fie their profefiions, and that while they look towards God,they row towards the world , and while they Hope, for Heaven , their daily travel is towards Hell, and while they plead for Cbrill, they work againft him, our Hopes of them are turned to neceffary la- mentation. But how comes this to pals chat reafonable men, yea men reputed wife and learned yea many that feemReligious to others and to themfelves, fhouid be fo fhamefully over» Peen, in a matter that fo concerneth their everlafting flare ? As far as I am able to difcover, the caufes of this Calamity are thefe two. a One part of the Profeffed Chriflians of the world, under - ftand not what Chriftianity is , and fo profefs but the empty name, when indeed the thing it felt which is in their conception and which they mean in that profef ion , isnothing like to true Chriflianity. 2. The other part of milcarryingprofeffors, though they do conceiveof the Chriftian Religion as it is, yet not with an ,ap- prehenfion intenfively answerable to the thing which they. appre- hend : Though their conceptions of the Chriflian verities have a morall Truth in them, it being not fall but True which they K 2 conceive
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